Category Nigeria News

Controversial Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi 11 has stirred the hornet’s nest again by calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to remove fuel subsidy to avoid the country going bankrupt.

Emir Sanusi who is well known for his acidic comments on national issues declared the Muhammadu Buhari administration’s economic policies as unfavourable, adding that Nigeria is on the threshold of bankruptcy.

He identified the bad economic policies of the Buhari administration to include subsidizing petroleum products, electricity tariffs and using 70 percent of the country’s revenue to service debt.

Emir Sanusi, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), made these revelations at the ongoing 3rd National Treasury Workshop organized by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation at Coronation Hall, Government House, Kano.

He advised Buhari to cancel subsidy in petroleum subsidy and electricity tariffs if the economy must stabilize.

“The country is Bankrupt and we are heading to bankruptcy. What happened is that the Federal Government do pay petroleum subsidy, pay electricity tariff subsidy, and if there is rise in interest rates, Federal Government pays.

“What is more life-threatening than subsidy that we have to sacrifice education, health sector and infrastructure for us to have cheap petroleum.

“If truly President Buhari is fighting poverty, he should remove the risk on the national financial sector and stop the subsidy regime which is fraudulent.”

He challenged President Buhari to tell Nigerians the fact about the economic situation and also act quickly on it because the nation is already bankrupt.

“Since I have decided to come here, you have to accept what I have said here. And please, if you do not want to hear the truth, never invite me.

“So let us talk about the state of public finance in Nigeria. We have a number of very difficult decisions that we must make, and we should face the reality. His Excellency, the President said in his inaugural speech that his government would like to lift 100 million people out of poverty, it was a speech that was well received not only in this country, but world-wide.

“The number of people living with poverty in Nigeria are frightening. By 2050, 85 percent of those living in extreme poverty in the world will be from the African continent. And Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo will take the lead.

“Two days ago, I read that the percentage of government revenue going to debt services has risen to 70 percent.

”These numbers are not lying. They are public numbers. I read them in the newspapers. When you are spending 70 percent of your revenue on debt services, then you are managing 30 percent.

“And then, you continue subsidizing petroleum products; and spending N1.5 trillion per annum on petroleum subsidy! And then we are subsidizing electricity tariff. And maybe, you have to borrow from the capital market or the Central Bank of Nigeria to service the shortfall in the electricity tariff, where is the money to pay salaries, where is the money for education, where are other government projects.

Sanusi lamented that for 30 years, successive governments have had this project called petroleum subsidy, insisting that this is the right time to stop it so as to save the nation’s economy.

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Source: PM News

File photo: Innocent Chukwuma

The Chairman of Innoson Motors, Mr Innocent Chukwuma, has described the warrant for his arrest by a Federal High Court in Lagos as an abuse of court process.

According to a statement signed by Mr Chukwuma, the order is a nullity and does not have any ground in law, adding that the court lacked the necessary jurisdiction.

“Firstly, there is no prima facie case against me. The charge was based on a suspected or trumped up action as the charge on the said action has been discharged by the Court of Appeal.

“There was no notice of trial served to me in pursuant to the relevant laws which is the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.”

READ ALSO: Togolese Cook Bags Life Imprisonment For Killing Credit Switch Boss

He explained that necessary steps have been taken to appeal the Order of Bench Warrant and filed an application to Stay the Execution of the Order.

Mr Chukwuma had been accused of altering clearance documents to a shipping Line, which was used as collateral for the purpose of obtaining a loan of N2.4 billion from Guaranty Trust bank Plc for the purpose of clearing raw materials, PVC for the production of roof ceiling and other imported items.

The case is pending before the Federal High Court, Lagos.

Ogun State Police Commissioner (CP) Basir Makama on Tuesday evening denied receiving 1,000 AK47 rifles and four million ammunition from former Governor Ibikunle Amosun.

Makama explained that physical counting of the ammunition showed there were “one million, four hundred thousand and some fractions,” a variation from the four million ammunition Amosun had told him while he was being disarmed.

He also explained that checks into police records revealed that the said weapons were handed over to the force in 2012, insisting that he didn’t see any weapon during the disarming process.

Online news site Premium Times had reported that the former Governor returned to the Police Commissioner four million bullets, 1,000 AK47 rifles, 1,000 bulletproof vests and one armoured personnel carrier (APC) he allegedly stockpiled at the Oke Mosan Government House for an extended period of time.

According to the report, Amosun had allegedly confessed to CP Makama on the presence of the firearms and ammunition on May 28, a day before he handed over power to his successor Dapo Abiodun.

The story generated massive outcry with social media users demanding the immediate arrest and prosecution of Amosun, now a Senator representing Ogun Central district at the National Assembly.

Reacting to the story, CP Makama told The Nation that he had a duty to disarm the governor at the end of his tenure which he executed.

He said: “I did not see any weapon. All he gave to the police the day he was disarmed are ammunition, ballistic helmet and body armour. I am new in the state, this is somebody who has been governor for eight years.

“I came in and one day when he was about going, he said CP, I have some materials I want to handover to you. Even if he didn’t buy them for the police or didn’t hand them over, I have a responsibility to disarm him and that was what I did.

“The ammunition was not up to four million as alleged. The former Governor said four million but when we counted, we found out it was one million, four hundred and a little fraction.

“I found out the 1,000 AK47 rifles were bought for them (police) in 2012. He had given them in 2012.

That is the record I have.”

Findings by our Correspondent revealed that was the practice by state governments who have expended resources in empowering the police.

It was gathered that an approval was granted from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) to allow states expanding their resources to empower the police have standard armoury at the Government House.

By this practice, the state, it was gathered will then supervise the use of the gadgets acquired with their resources to prevent same from being moved to other parts of the country following orders from the Inspector General of Police (IG) to CPs.

“It is not like the governor was keeping these weapons and ammunition for himself. What happened is that because of the lack of capacity and equipment the police had suffered in the past, those state governors that boost the police capability were allowed to have standard armoury in their government houses.

“This was done to ensure that the state benefits from the gadgets it expended money on. The truth is that if those weapons are left under the police armoury, the IG can call at anytime to request deployment to another area and no CP will disobey that order,” said a very senior policeman who cannot be named.

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Source: PM News

Ahead of their Passing Out Parade, a group of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members (medical doctors) serving in Borno State are demanding the immediate payment of allowances which they say they’ve been owed for the past five months.

The Corps Members numbering up to 190, comprise of 2018/2019 Batch B, 2018/ 2019 Batch C and 2019/ 2020 Batch A.

They marched to the Borno State Government House on Monday to present their case to the Governor, Professor Babagana Umara.

They were, however, denied entrance and the spokesperson of the group, Dr. Azi Cornelius explained that his members had made previous efforts by writing correspondences to ask the authority to pay their monthly allowance but that never happened.

According to them, former governor Kashim Shettima had approved the payment of N100,000 to each of the medical NYSC doctors and N50,000 to other corps members in the health sector.

They also claimed that they constitute over 50% of the medical work force in the state and have been discharging their duties effectively and efficiently.

However, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Mustapha Alau, who declined to speak on camera said the governor has already directed the Ministry of Finance to pay the corps members.

Immediate past Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, has said that the Federal Government is taking into account, environmental and social governance by providing adequate financing for environmentally-friendly projects.

Mrs Ahmed, in an exclusive chat with Channels TV, said that since December 2017, FG has been able to issue two green bonds to fund projects relating to water, power, and environment.

“It is about being able to ensure we take into account, environmental and social governance when we are making decisions and also on the part of the government, to make sure that we raise adequate financing for environmentally-friendly projects.

“In Nigeria, we have been able to issue two green bonds in December 2017 and June 2019, which means we are aware of our responsibilities as a government; the green bonds are issued to fund projects that are in the national budget, relating to water, power as well as the environment and some projects in health.”

READ ALSO: Financial Autonomy: Buhari Promises To Stabilise State Legislature, Judiciary

The former Minister added that a lot of planning, with the right level of funding, is needed to tackle environmental issues.

“It is a reality that climate change presents a very high risk to the world globally and we are not isolated in Nigeria, we have seen clearly what climate change has done to the far North, there is a very high level of desertification and it is increasing.

“There is a huge cost to environmental issues if they are not planned for and financed and addressed adequately, it will affect the growth that we aspire to and if we don’t plan for them and get the right level of funding, it will affect the growth of the Nigerian economy.

“The green bond gives us an opportunity to be able to raise adequate financing to fund environmental-friendly projects that are already incorporated in our national budget.”

She added that the green bonds will create jobs and make small businesses and individuals partake in improving Nigeria’s environment.

“The output is that there are opportunities even in the challenge that exists in climate change. Climate-friendly projects have the potentials to create a large number of jobs; we also have an opportunity in raising green bonds to be able to crowdsource funding so that investors are not just large companies, but small businesses as well as individuals.

“I hope going forward that the Nigerian government will be able to issue green bonds to enable the average Nigerian invest small sums so that we all feel that we are contributing directly towards the improvement of our environment.”

President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan says his monthly salary is N750,000 and that there was nothing like jumbo salary for National Assembly members as being speculated in some quarters.

Lawan made the disclosure, when members of the Senators’ Forum paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Abuja on Tuesday.

While further disregarding the jumbo pay issue, he revealed that his monthly salary as a lawmaker and that of his colleagues was N750,000.

“What I want to emphasize here is that I never believed that that there is anything called Jombo pay to the national assembly.

“The National Assembly members both the Senate and the House receive what is their salaries and I receive N750,000 as my salary.

“But I need to function as a senator, my office needs to be properly funded,” he said.

He promised that the National Assembly was going to be open to the general public in the conduct of its legislative activities, particularly in the area of funding

“National Assembly is going to be open to the public , I believe that the national assembly should have everything open , let Nigerians Know, what we are doing.

“I believe that Nigerians need to understand this, we need to continually engage with Nigerians and I will also argue that we continue to explain to Nigerians, they deserve to know how their resources are being utilised.

“ I believe that the national assembly needs proper funding because the legislature is so critical in any national development,’’ he said.

He added that the ninth senate would be a by-partisan senate that would carter for the unity and progress of the nation.

“This senate is a by-partisan senate, senators consciously decided to work for us and we take that very seriously, what that means is that we are going to make for progress Nigeria.

“Because what we have done is to be patriotic and we belong to various political parties, but once we are here Nigeria is our constituency.

“The Senate is going to be united in the conduct of its oversight. It is a senate that will work for Nigeria. We are going to do everything possible to remain united in a very by–partisan manner and remain focused .

“Because the challenges against Nigeria is enormous, we need to enhance our of security. We need to make sure the economy works for every one for those at the lowest ladder and those at the top, this is necessary I don’t believe that rancor or hostility will yield any positive result.

“I have witnessed how rancour undermined national development, I also witnessed a very peaceful and cordial relationship that at the end of the day produce the kind of outcomes that Nigerian desire. So we are here to follow the part of peace, but we are going to be very seriously and systematically in our over sight. A minister or head of organisation that is expected to function must function,” he said.

He said the senate was determined to ensure that the Nigeria returns to the January to December budget process .

“We have to work together and archive what need to archive for Nigerians. We know the challenges and we will work hard to ensure that we get the solution. This senate is determined to ensure for example we pass the budget in three months and we believe this is achievable and doable .

“All we require is for the executive to provide the appropriation bill in good time may be at the end of September or early week of September.

“The National Assembly will sit to ensure that there is defence of the budget by the MDAs and before we live for Christmas, we will ensure that the budget is passed, so that we go back to the January to December budget cycle,’’ he said.

Earlier, the Chairman of the forum, Sen. Khariat Gwadabe, said the meeting was a unique opportunity for them to interface with the president of the senate.

She also expressed confidence in Lawan’s capacity to lead the senate, having spent 20 years in the parliament, adding that the forum was ready to support the ninth assembly.

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Source: PM News